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Facing the fastball of Cincinnati’s Aroldis Chapman means swallowing pride and shifting strategy. You treat the “Cuban Missile” as a crisis.

“I think the only two times I’ve choked up on a bat in the big leagues has been the last two days,” Headley said. “I’m not usually the type of guy who does that. But not too many guys throw 102-103 (miles per hour) from the left side. He might be the only guy that I do that against.”

“I scooted back a little bit than I normally do,” said Denorfia. “That’s the first time I’ve done it all year. There’s very little time to do anything when it’s coming in that fast.”

Headley’s ninth-inning walk and Denorfia’s two-out double produced the decisive run in the Padres’ 4-3 walkoff win over the Reds and their southpaw smoke specialist Saturday afternoon. Having thrown the fastest pitch ever clocked Friday night — a 105-mph fastball — Chapman returned to the mound at Petco Park with slightly less spectacular stuff and a better prepared opponent.

Yet the critical move in the ballgame was probably not the relocation of Headley’s hands or Denorfia’s feet, but the rotation of the earth.

Those late afternoon shadows can make a baseball look like a blur. Hard as it is to put one of Chapman’s pitches in play, it can be that much more difficult to pick up one of those pitches once it makes contact with a bat. Denorfia’s double found a hole barely big enough for a mouse’s midsection, between the third-base line and the line-guarding Scott Rolen, a seven-time Gold Glove winner.

Twenty-three hours a day, Denorfia’s hit was probably an out. Timing may not be everything, but it helped the Padres reclaim first place Saturday. Since Heath Bell was credited with the win, award a save to the sun.

“I know how tough it is that time of day,” said Glenn Hoffman, the Padres’ third base coach. “You’ve got to really concentrate. With the shadows the way they are, you can’t tell speed. (Rolen) got in position (but) with the speed of the ball, it just stayed under (his glove).”

While playing third base in the top of the ninth inning, Headley observed that home plate was in shadows, that the ground between third base and halfway to home plate was in the sun, and that the shadows resumed beyond the third-base bag.

Presumably, the sun is still stationary and the shadows shift as the earth rotates, but the central point is the same: Rolen had it rough.

“The shadows may have had something to do with it,” Heath Bell said. “But I really think it was the speed of Chapman. If somebody throws 95 (mph) and the guy hits it solid, they always say it’s like 115 off the bat. When you’re throwing 100 miles an hour, it’s probably coming off at 150 miles an hour. (Fielding) is probably like trying to hit the ball. It’s a split-second reaction.”

Since Rolen’s reactions were insufficient to stop Denorfia’s shot from bounding into the left-field corner, the plodding Headley was able to score the winning run from first base. That Headley was on first base in the first place, thanks to a one-out walk, is a testament to fighting fire with containment tactics.

Rather than swing hard and hope against Chapman, Headley went to home plate with the idea of taking his hacks in a narrow range and leaving the rest to Chapman’s control.

“Even if it’s a clear ball, you have to make up your mind up so quick that it’s hard to lay off,” Headley said. “I try to be really, really selective with him because you’re not going to catch up to those pitches anyway.

“If he throws you a strike up and away, it’s going to be hard to put it in play. So my thing is to be as selective as you can. Hopefully, you can get a pitch you can handle. If not, just take the results. Whether it’s a walk or a strikeout, so be it.”

Because of technical difficulties with the stadium’s Pitch F/X tracking technology, the speed of some of Chapman’s pitches were not posted on the stadium scoreboard Saturday afternoon. Only 12 of Chapman’s 17 pitches were assigned speeds on MLB.com, the fastest being a 101-mph heater Luis Durango hit foul.

The speed of Chapman’s only pitch to Denorfia was not recorded, but it sure left the bat in a hurry.

“It happened very fast,” Denorfia said. “Let’s put it this way: As soon as I stepped in there, he went into his windup. Sometimes the best at bats you have (are) when your mind’s not working; when you just kind of shut it off. It was definitely one of those moments.”